[BITList] Who wants to be a millionaire?

[John Feltham]

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Laker, Sir  Frederick Alfred  [Freddie]  (1922-2006), aviation entrepreneur, was born on 6 August 1922 at 52 New Ruttington Lane, Canterbury, Kent, the son of Frederick Henry Laker, an able seaman in the Royal Navy, later builder, and his wife, Hannah, nee Todd. His father deserted the family when Freddie was five, and he was brought up by his mother, a shopkeeper and cleaner who later ran a successful scrap metal business.

Education and early working life

While attending Simon Langton School in Canterbury, at the age of fourteen Laker is said to have been determined to 'be a millionaire'. His passion for aviation was kindled in 1936 when he saw the German airship Hindenburg and an Imperial Airways Handley Page 42 biplane airliner flying over the city. This inspired him to join the Short Brothers flying-boat factory at nearby Rochester, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. Although his initial duties were little more than sweeping the floor and making tea, he demonstrated an embryonic entrepreneurial streak, inherited from his mother, by negotiating a bulk price for the tea from the factory canteen before selling it on to the workers at a profit. Thereafter, he pursued both his aspiration to succeed financially and his passion for aviation, enjoying the high life afforded by the former while always regarding the well-being of his 'everyman' clientele as paramount in the latter.

After the Shorts factory was bombed in 1941 Laker spent a brief period working as a fitter with General Aircraft at Feltham, Middlesex. Despite being in a reserved occupation, to satisfy the urge to fly himself he inveigled his way into the Royal Air Force Air Transport Auxiliary, becoming a qualified flight engineer and pilot and ferrying aircraft from the production factories to service squadrons. Meanwhile, on 10 May 1942 he married Joan Mavis Smallwood, a 25-year-old publisher's clerk, and daughter of Owen Smallwood, accountant. They had a daughter, Elaine, and a son, Kevin, who was killed in a car crash in 1965, aged seventeen.

Laker spent three months with the newly created British European Airways in 1946, but was unable to relate to the state-owned culture, and with his war-ending gratuity of £40 switched to a succession of 'trading' ventures. Buying and selling a wide variety of mechanical items, he achieved his primary objective of establishing his own aviation business a year later. The names he adopted for his first two companies set up to provide a self-supporting independent air transport business-Aviation Traders and Air Charter-effectively described his chosen vocation and his distinctive personal credo. Initially operating Aviation Traders (Engineering) Ltd (ATEL) out of a small garage in Streatham, south-west London, he purchased huge stocks of government-surplus equipment. Also offering his personal service as a consultant, he was given a cheque for £38,000 by a Scottish client, in return for an earlier favour, which he used as starting capital to set up Air Charter Ltd to operate his expanding passenger and cargo charter business-basing both companies at Southend, Essex.

In June 1948 the extraordinary opportunity arose for Laker to gain a very lucrative share in the year-long, round-the-clock Berlin airlift-one of the most expeditious humanitarian logistical operations in modern times. This was desperately needed to frustrate the precipitate Soviet blockade of West Berlin by providing a massive air transport capacity to supply virtually every conceivable kind of consumable material of daily life. Accordingly he deployed a fleet of six Handley Page Haltons (converted war-surplus Halifax bombers), making 2577 round trips and carrying 17,131 tons of supplies-11.6 per cent of the total tonnage delivered-as well as supporting numerous other aircraft types and their operators.

Reverting to large-scale war surplus bomber aircraft conversion and resale for troop carrying and civil use, spare parts, and scrap (thereby long anticipating the vogue for large-scale recycling), in 1951 Laker began flying operations again in what he called his 'little Berlin airlift' to meet the continuing need for supply support and the evacuation of refugees. Another profitable venture came his way in 1952 in the form of a long series of government trooping flights to all parts of the British empire. ATEL also purchased a fleet of Avro Tudor airliners formerly owned by the British Overseas Airways Corporation, which he fitted with large cargo doors, five becoming 'Super Traders', and operated as far afield as Christmas Island in the mid-Pacific.

Laker's next major venture with ATEL was the design and construction of the innovative 28 seat, twin Rolls-Royce Dart propeller-turbine powered, Aviation Traders 'Accountant' airliner, as his own solution to the much-vaunted American Douglas DC-3 Dakota replacement market. Adopting the complete Dart powerplant of the highly successful Vickers Viscount, and a novel tensioned-skin construction concept, the prototype was first flown in July 1957. Laker regarded this project as his greatest achievement-although it also turned out to be his biggest commercial failure. Launching series production was well beyond ATEL's resources. Unable to secure government backing, he sought support from the major British aircraft manufacturers. However, serious negotiations with Avro proved unfruitful and, after spending about £750,000 on the project, he was forced to abandon it in January 1959-whereupon Avro proceeded with its own equivalent, the best-selling 748.

Meanwhile, after Laker bought a Bristol Freighter, his first brand new aircraft (for which type ATEL also built the centre sections), Air Charter began its pioneering Channel Air Bridge service in April 1954, carrying motor vehicles, passengers, cargo, and livestock between Southend and Lympne (Kent), and Calais. Four years later he conceived a most imaginative replacement with his ATL-98 Carvair (car-via-air) conversion of the Douglas DC-4 airliner. This incorporated a completely new front fuselage section with a raised cockpit enabling straight-in nose loading, long before the same concept was applied to the Boeing 747. ATEL produced twenty-two such conversions at Southend, which were distributed throughout the world, eventually operating with seventy-five airlines, transporting cars, royalty, rock groups, refugees, whales, rocket cases, gold, and even nuclear materials. Two were known to be still in service fifty years later.

British United Airways

Laker sold ATEL and Air Charter to Airwork, another British independent operator, and in 1960 became managing director of the Gatwick-based British United Airways (BUA), formed by the merger of the Airwork and Hunting Clan empires. It soon acquired Silver City Airways, and thus became the biggest British (and European) independent rival to the state-owned British European Airways and British Overseas Airways Corporation, and hence the UK's third largest airline. Under his commanding leadership BUA operated scheduled services, charters, and government trooping contracts and, significantly, became the launch customer for the newly formed British Aircraft Corporation's BAC One-Eleven (the world's first 'tailored-for-the-job' regional twin-jet airliner), ordering ten 'off the drawing board' with a substantial influence in its design conception. BUA also operated the world's first scheduled hovercraft service, inaugurated on 20 July 1962 with the Vickers SRN2 plying across the five-mile estuary of the River Dee to link Merseyside and north Wales, and operated the world's first city-centre rail-air terminal at its London, Victoria, offices to serve its operating base at Gatwick airport.

By now a formidable figure on the world air transport stage, Laker was also a strong supporter of the Rolls-Royce Conway-powered Vickers VC10 intercontinental airliner, acquiring two of his own version incorporating a large main deck freight loading door. Always flaunting his patriotism, he launched the first aircraft into service by loading Rolls-Royce's Silver Cloud demonstration car into it at the 1964 Farnborough air show to fly direct to east and central Africa, thereby symbolizing the Britishness of the whole operation. This version of the aircraft was particularly suitable for the Royal Air Force, which ordered a fleet of fourteen similarly fitted multi-role military transports.

Laker Airways and Skytrain

In October 1965 Laker expressed his firm belief in private enterprise in British air transport by stating that:

The competitive stimulus that [the independent airline operators] have provided is in the interests of civil aviation and they should be encouraged to participate more in all kinds and in all spheres of scheduled international and domestic passenger and freight services, vehicle ferries and inclusive tours. ('Private enterprise in British air transport')
This was the ethic that prompted him to fulfil the long-held objective of setting up his own airline. Leaving BUA in November 1965, he formed his own 'wholesale' airline, Laker Airways. Launched on the back of the expanding UK inclusive tour holiday market, and using two turbo-prop Bristol Britannias and four newly ordered BAC One-Elevens, this became the largest individually owned airline in the world. After Laker replaced the Britannias with Boeing 707 jetliners it also became Britain's first all-jet airline. Travellers could arrive without booking and buy a cheap flight, and in-flight meals were paid for separately. In 1973 he also operated the world's first advanced booking charter (ABC) flight, between Manchester and Toronto (offering low-cost flights when booked more than four weeks in advance).

Setting himself up as the champion of 'the forgotten man'  (The Times, 11 Feb 2006), in 1971 with his characteristically bold entrepreneurial style and vision, Laker took another significant pioneering step by acquiring a fleet of Douglas DC-10 intercontinental tri-jets specifically intended for the launch of his most ambitious project, the transatlantic Skytrain, aimed at breaking the dominance of the existing primary carriers. Conceived as a self-generating, no-reservation, walk-on, single-class, low-cost, no-frills operation to succeed his so-called 'affinity charter' transatlantic operation, it heralded the beginning of a veritable revolution in international air travel. The inspiration came in 1971 when the UK government cracked down on 'affinity groups', which had until then been a way of providing reduced fares for parties of supposedly like-minded people (the condition set by the International Air Transport Association, IATA, for allowing charter flights at fares below the agreed minimum fare), but was a system that had inevitably become abused. However, such was the serious competitive threat that Skytrain was seen to pose to the established members of the rigidly regulated IATA that it took him six years of complex and unflagging legal and political battles-through the American presidential terms of Nixon and Ford, and a high court action against Peter Shore, the British secretary of state for trade, earning him incalculable free publicity and goodwill in the process-to win a permit to launch the venture. Ultimately the permit was granted by President Carter's administration and Skytrain was inaugurated on 26 September 1977 with flights between Gatwick and New York Kennedy airports, carrying 272 passengers, paying £59 each one way. Laker was knighted in the queen's birthday honours in 1978.

By 1981 Skytrain had grown to encompass nine scheduled routes from three British airports to New York, San Francisco, Miami, Los Angeles, and Tampa, carrying one in seventeen transatlantic passengers. It was the fifth largest transatlantic carrier and was a revolutionary success. From 1976 to 1982 Laker also operated International Caribbean Airways for the Barbados government. He then envisaged an around-the-world Globetrain service via Los Angeles to Hong Kong and back to Britain to achieve the ultimate extension of his low-cost concept-also applying for licences to operate 140 routes to open up the intra-European market to low fares, ordering ten European Airbus A300 twin-jets with which to do so.

However, in February 1982 (a year before the introduction of American air transport deregulation) Skytrain was peremptorily forced into receivership and liquidated. The airline, then operating twenty jet aircraft including eleven DC-10s, was part of the vertically integrated Laker Group of sixteen companies-which included aircraft maintenance and handling companies, wholesale tour operators, and retail travel companies in the UK, West Germany, Spain, Canada, and the USA. In fact Laker and his airline were never declared bankrupt. Although he had been consistently profitable for thirty-five years, he had an overdraft of £9 million with the Clydesdale Bank and was simply shut down by a bank foreclosure in unprecedented circumstances involving the predatory practices of his monopolistic competitors, the six largest transatlantic carriers, who combined to plot his downfall. Struggling with this debt-the year 1981-2 was also one of rising oil prices, recession, and a falling pound-it was Pan American's decision to cut its economy class fares by 66 per cent that finally killed off Skytrain. Laker filed a 1.5 billion anti-trust action in the USA, claiming that twelve major international and American airlines and others had conspired to force him out of business. In the event political intervention resulted in the lawsuit being settled out of court in 1985 for 56 million, with 48 million provided for refunds to an estimated 14,000 disenfranchised ticket holders, travel agents, and other small creditors, and all his staff were fully compensated. Despite the failure of Laker Airways, Laker had created a visionary template that inspired a later generation of aviation entrepreneurs, and transformed the air transport world.

Laker's first marriage ended in divorce in 1968, and on 22 July the same year he married Rosemary Belfrage Black, formerly Rosemary Belfrage Shanks, a 33-year-old South African divorcee, and daughter of David Belfrage Black, wool spinner. The marriage was dissolved in 1975, and on 18 July the same year Laker married Patricia LaVerne Gates, a 36-year-old American widowed public relations officer, and daughter of Robert Bowden, storekeeper. They had one son, Freddie Robert, who died four hours after birth, and another, Freddie Allen, who survived being shot in the stomach in Miami at the age of twelve. This marriage also ended in divorce, in 1982, and Laker married fourthly and finally, on 6 August 1985, Jacqueline Ann Harvey, a divorced 42-year-old airline hostess and public relations officer, and daughter of Horace Audley Harvey, engineer.

Final years and assessment

Disillusioned but undaunted after the loss of Laker Airways, Laker refounded his business interests in the USA in 1983. There he set up his final air transport ventures in 1992: Laker Airways Inc., flying transatlantic services until 1998, and Laker Airways (Bahamas), flying affluent gamblers between Florida and the casinos on Grand Bahama island (where he lived latterly) until 2005. Diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1993, he campaigned vigorously for greater awareness of the condition. He died in Miami on 9 February 2006 following complications from cardiac surgery to implant a pacemaker. He was survived by his wife, Jacqueline, one daughter, and one son.

One of the most colourful, inspirational, and accomplished individuals to appear on the British and international aviation scene, and a national icon, Freddie Laker was self-assured, free-spirited, and patriotic; his company's motto was 'Strong, independent, British'. He faced opportunities and obstacles with equal fortitude. Promoting his many and diverse ventures with his own name, face, and outstretched arms, flying-fashion, he excitedly proclaimed his ever-popular slogans, 'Fly me, I'm Freddie' and 'Take a Laker', while adorning his aircraft with his own horse-racing colours and the national flag to flaunt his staunch patriotism. He was one of the few airline leaders who could tackle any job in the business himself-from comprehending and negotiating the complexities of a multi-million dollar aircraft purchase deal to flying and maintaining his own aircraft. The depth of his experience, professional ability, and flair, without dependence on adepts, was the foundation of his outstanding success as a private enterprise airline owner and industrial leader. Surviving and thriving through the arduous evolution of post-war British air transport, he was the true pioneer of low-cost air travel in the relentless pursuit of his 'dream of carrying ordinary people all over the world at prices they can afford'  (Monckton and Fallon).

At the time that Richard Branson (who regarded Laker as a mentor) launched his low-cost Virgin Atlantic transatlantic flights Laker was reported as saying that the twentieth century had largely belonged to the traditional, high-cost airlines, but that the twenty-first century would be the preserve of the no-frills airlines. The global proliferation of such carriers had even by the time of his death validated his business model. Dubbed 'the people's champion', and the epitome of a self-made man, his profusely variegated six-decade aviation career was characterized by vision, fervour, astuteness, and patriotism.

Norman Barfield 

Sources  M. Pearson, The millionaire mentality (1961) + F. A. Laker, 'Private enterprise in British air transport', lecture at Royal Aeronautical Society, 14 Oct 1965 + R. Eglin and B. Ritchie, Fly me, I'm Freddie (1980) + C. Monckton and I. Fallon, The Laker story (1982) + H. Banks, The rise and fall of Freddie Laker (1982) + R. E. G. Davies, Rebels and reformers of the airways (1987) + J. Tegler, '"A over S": an interview with Sir Freddie Laker', Airways USA (Oct 1999) + 'The Laker Airways Skytrain', Airliner World (July 2005) + BBC News, 10 Feb 2006 + The Times (11 Feb 2006) + Daily Telegraph (11 Feb 2006) + The Guardian (11 Feb 2006) + The Independent (11 Feb 2006) + Miami Herald (11 Feb 2006) + WW (2006) + Burke, Peerage + b. cert. + m. certs.
Archives  FILM BFI NFTVA, current affairs footage + BFI NFTVA, Person to person, R. Chapman (director), BBC1, 19 July 1979 SOUND BFI NSA, Trouble at the top, BBC2, 8 Jan 1997 + BFI NSA, The John Bull business, BBC2, 18 Aug 1989
Likenesses  A. Newman, bromide print, 1978, NPG · B. Fantoni, pencil and gouache, NPG · photographs, Royal Aeronautical Society, London · obituary photographs · photographs, 1965-80, Getty Images, London, Hult. Arch. · photographs, 1978-2001, Getty Images, London, Popperfoto · P. Vicente, photographs, 1997, Getty Images, London, AFP · T. O'Neill, photographs, 2000, Getty Images, London, Premium Archive · photographs, 1975-96, Photoshot, London · photographs, 1963-2004, PA Photos, London · photographs, 1978-2005, Rex Features, London · photographs, Camera Press, London · A. Ashwood, photograph, Camera Press, London [see illus.] · G. Scarfe, cartoon, repro. in Sunday Times (7 Feb 1982)



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